To provide a comprehensive disclosure without unduly lengthening the following description, applicants incorporate by reference the disclosures of U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,609,780, 4,651,544, 4,800,255, 4,808,993, 4,838,052 and 4,85I,652.
Lockboxes are used in the real estate industry to contain the keys of houses listed for sale. Prior art lockboxes have historically been mechanical devices which allow access to a secure compartment by use of a conventional key. Such lockboxes and keys, however, have had certain drawbacks.
More recently, electronic real estate lockboxes have become popular. One important advantage of an electronic lockbox over its mechanical predecessors has been its ability to record the identities of agents accessing the lockbox, together with the date and time of such accesses. This information is typically maintained in an electronic memory inside the lockbox, although in some systems the information is stored in the accessing key.
The data stored in these system components is usually in numeric form with, for example, a number identifying the lockbox, a number identifying each key, etc. For this data to be useful to the listing agent responsible for a property, it must be interpreted to identify the address of the listed property, the names of the accessing agents, etc.
The interpretation of this numeric data is typically performed by a computer to which the raw data from the lockboxes (or keys) is provided. The computer maintains a database containing data correlating the numeric input data to the textual output data desired by the listing agent. However, this computer is often located a considerable distance from the listing agent (more particularly, from the real estate office with which the listing agent is affiliated.) Sometimes the computer is at the office of the regional real estate board. In other cases, the computer may be at the office of a service provider to whom the task of administering the system has been contracted.
In accordance with the present invention, the interpreted report is transmitted by facsimile from the central computer to a real estate office with which the listing agent is affiliated. In some embodiments, the computer includes a facsimile circuit board which permits it to transmit the documentation in facsimile form without ever being reduced to hard copy. This speeds considerably the reporting process. In some embodiments, the raw data is relayed to the central computer by modem.
The foregoing and additional features and advantages of the present invention will be more readily apparent from the following detailed description, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.